One way of testing the effectiveness of your communication is to ask yourself...
Today’s post is from our archives at SafeSourcing.
Have you ever misinterpreted the meaning of someone’s written communication?
Of course you have, it happens to everyone. Why? Because it’s easy to make statements that contain multiple possible meanings. A large portion of the understanding we glean through verbal communication comes from body language, and word emphasis.
Take the following for example. We all hear written communication through whatever internal voicing’s we give the speaker. If I INTERPERATE the emphases of a word *denoted by asterisks* it completely changes the meaning of the phrase (the implied meaning in parentheses):
*I* don’t think he’s a liar (But somebody does)
I don’t *think* he’s a liar (But he could be)
I don’t think he’s a *liar* (But he’s probably something else equally terrible)
I *don’t* think he’s a liar (He’s definitely not a liar)
One way of testing the effectiveness of your communication is to ask yourself; How many different meanings could be extrapolated from my statement? Ideally your communication is so concise and exclusive to your meaning there’s only one possible interpretation. The same principle holds true for QUESTIONS; They should be formatted in such a way that they funnel all of the potential answers in the format that you are actually trying to receive back. Vague questions will receive vague answers.
Our RFI/RFP toolset, for instance, allows us to frame questions with as many constraints as necessary to receive answers with a high degree of relevance and usability. Not only do we format our wording to convey our meaning properly, we can force answers to be as close ended as a simple a Yes/No button, or as open ended as an essay answer.
Ask us how we can help your business ask the right questions, and narrow the possible meanings of your communications before you hit the send button!
We look forward to your comments.
hello there and thank you for your information – I’ve certainly picked up something new from right here. I did however expertise a few technical issues using this web site, since I experienced to reload the website a lot of times previous to I could get it to load properly. I had been wondering if your web hosting is OK? Not that I am complaining, but sluggish loading instances times will sometimes affect your placement in google and can damage your high quality score if ads and marketing with Adwords. Well I am adding this RSS to my email and could look out for much more of your respective exciting content. Make sure you update this again soon..
I have noticed that rates for on-line degree authorities tend to be an excellent value. For instance a full Bachelors Degree in Communication from The University of Phoenix Online consists of 60 credits with $515/credit or $30,900. Also American Intercontinental University Online offers a Bachelors of Business Administration with a overall course element of 180 units and a tariff of $30,560. Online learning has made having your college diploma far less difficult because you can certainly earn your degree from the comfort of your dwelling place and when you finish from work. Thanks for all tips I have really learned from your site.
Best good quality USA proxies – DreamProxies.com structure having 50 lower price!
Thanks for your tips on this blog. A single thing I would want to say is the fact purchasing electronic devices items on the Internet is not something new. In fact, in the past several years alone, the market for online electronic devices has grown drastically. Today, you will find practically just about any electronic gadget and product on the Internet, which include cameras and camcorders to computer parts and game playing consoles.
Regards for sharing the information with us.